#Not like other girls

[pyunyrage]

[republic-of-cheese]

I'm not like other girls. I've somehow angered the Gods.

[etherealspacejelly]

its so funny looking back on my 'not like other girls' phase now as an adult, knowing im audhd, aroace, and transmasc

like. honey. you dont like makeup because of sensory issues. you dont like dresses because of dysphoria. you dont care about boys because you're not attracted to them in that way. of Course you dont fit in with the other girls, a) you're not a girl and b) you're autistic as fuck dumbass

[tinstol]

Is she a Pick Me or is she just masculine? Is she a Pick Me or is she just neurodivergent? Is she a Pick Me or is she just queer? Is she a Pick Me or is she just trans and hasn’t realized it yet? Is she a Pick Me or is she just a person with male friends? Is she a Pick Me or is she just not traditionally feminine? Is she a Pick Me or are you just unfairly judging her?

TERFS fuck off. If you demean these women, you are not a feminist.

[yapoholics-anonymous]

this collusion does not save the daughter from the mother's fate.

[your-average-teenage-mess]

The fact that so many of us grew up undiagnosed autistic and socially isolated to the point where we couldn't have a normal interaction with our average classmate, were forced into learning philosophical and psychological theory just to understand what the fuck was wrong with us, kept having our interests shamed by the mainstream and our natural form of existence being seen as a turn-off for almost everyone in our fucking lives, kept being told that we were being inappropriate and unacceptable because the rules of society were stupid, had our entire life fall apart because everything was harder than it was supposed to be, developed multiple mental health issues in the process and had to cling to the insights we gained about society from the outside and to the things we were passionate about as our only forms of stability and power, only to then be told that we're "not better than everyone else for liking different things" and "should stop trying to win over male approval", just because we also happened to live through all that as girls and God Forbid we let the self-importance of an isolated dysfunctional teenage girl without social support blow out of proportion, will probably continue making me angry for as long as this doesn't stop. And maybe a bit after that too.

What I need some of you to understand is that "haha other girls wear makeup and date guys while I listen to indie rock and have no love life" is not necessarily a takedown of wearing makeup and dating guys. Sometimes it's just attempting to joke around at how terrifyingly isolating it is to be the only one who is the latter and WOULD NOT BE ABLE TO MAKE YOURSELF ANY OTHER WAY EVEN IF YOU TRIED, while everyone in your life is the former, and seem to relegate you to the category of "unsociable weirdo". Do you really think that this causes people (and by people I mean TEENAGE GIRLS for fucks sake) to believe they're genuinely better than everyone around them? Do you think people who went through this and made "other girls vs me" memes on Facebook were the ones who left the "other girls" of the world with unresolved personal trauma from highschool? That the outcasts joking about being edgy and cool because they can't get along with anyone are the ones who made gender-conforming girls with mainstream interests and a friend group and a love life feel like they are lesser? Give me. A fucking. Break.

[hadesoftheladies]

i don't think it's a coincidence that heroines and female protagonists in most entertainment franchises are depicted as extremely beautiful and a good chunk of their power is expressed primarily through their sexual prowess. it makes women correlate attractiveness and femininity with power without actually showing them what having and getting real power looks like. this "women can do both" femme-fatale shit distracts audiences from the fact that femininity actively disempowers women. it drains their finances, keeps them focused on appealing to men instead of overthrowing them (priming them to seek men's approval above their own well-being), and harms their bodies.

i promise you women being sexually attractive to men never helped get them rights or respect. not even an iota.

(also, i've noticed that these super smart, charismatic, beautiful women are always portrayed as exceptional while the women around them are flighty, crazy, stupid, helpless, dumb, hysterical and she's the one to help and liberate them from their bad looks, empty heads, and cowardice. because the narrative must show that she is an EXCEPTION and not the norm because most women really are "like that." they are an unachievable standard that is simultaneously used to bash women while pretending to lift them up. also, there's a lot of white supremacist rhetoric)

[princesssarisa]

I've often seen Beauty and the Beast accused of using the Not Like Other Girls trope for Belle. But personally? I've always thought it was "not like other people."

My personal definition for the Not Like Other Girls trope in fiction is when most of the other female characters – not the male characters, just the females – are portrayed negatively compared to the heroine.

Almost all of Belle's neighbors are portrayed as small-minded and prejudiced, male and female alike. The bookseller is the only sympathetic male among them. Nor do I think the Bimbettes/Silly Girls are meant to represent all girls other than Belle. If they did, then we may as well say that... say... LeFou represents all men, but I've never heard anyone make that accusation.

Those are just my thoughts, though.

[chrissy-kaos]

Little b-slide clip out here for ya'll.. this one actually felt pretty good 🤙🏼🛹

[valewritessss]

Biana Vacker is what the Aphrodite cabin should’ve been

[arashikohedervary]

I'm not your average LotR fan who watches the movies every weekend, speaks Elvish, have read the Silmarillion multiple times and knows Lord Elrond's family tree by heart.

Because I speak Dwarvish.

[miasmultifandomdump]

It annoys me how so much of modern discourse around female characters is, to be frank, misogyny repackaged as being progressive.

If a woman's strengths and interests are associated with being feminine, such as cooking or enjoying nice clothes or being kind and compassionate, the entire fandom jumps on her as stereotypical or weak. It's seen as cool to bash on "women's work", never mind that your average misogynist has been doing it for decades, hell, centuries, and the jobs that are mocked as women's work are actually pretty essential to humans surviving and thriving.

And then, of course, if a woman shows the slightest hint of nonconformity, the entire fandom jumps on her because "oh!! she's trying to be not like other girls!! she wants male attention so bad!!" It doesn't matter how she is to the other girls in her life, if she wears combat boots and listens to punk instead of Taylor Swift, she clearly hates every other woman ever according to certain parts of fandom. It couldn't be that she's neurodivergent or LGBT or hell, even just a tomboy, she has to hate every other girl on the planet. /sarcasm

AND JUST TO CLARIFY. These tropes can genuinely be negatively done. The traditionally feminine girl can be a weak character and the tomboy girl can be an ass. But when you're calling a girl a "pick me" just because she doesn't live up to your idea of what a woman should look like or what you think feminism is... congratulations. You've simply repackaged sexism and called it woke. And lots of girls who see this crap online are going to suffer for it but hey, it was never actually about them, so who cares, right? /sarcasm

Anyway, to all the girls reading this post, you go ahead and be who you want. Be a princess or a president or a pop singer or a punk rocker or hell, all of the above. You're not a "pick me" you're not a "handmaiden" you're not trying too hard to be "not like other girls". You are fine. Don't let pseudo-woke nonsense get to you. It's just white noise.

[lepusrufus]

The average human has a lifespan of about 80 years and this is what I choose to do with my precious time

[shewhotellsstories]

I always thought the critique of the "not like other girls" trope was that it demonizes femininity and creates MCs who hate other girls because there can only be one special girl in the story. But, we shouldn't forget that historically women and girls who didn't conform to gender roles and expectations were treated pretty harshly. And I'm biased, but I'm not sure that the girl who happily called her best friend the other cleverest girl in the Ton is in the same boat as the kind of woman who'd say that they don't have any female friends because girls are too much drama.

[princesssarisa]

Some more thoughts on "Wicked"

Twice now I've seen posts from Wicked fans criticizing Fiyero for, of all things...

...telling Elphaba that she doesn't have to act like Glinda.

What??

Apparently, some fans, especially Gelphie shippers, hate that line of his after the "Popular" scene. ("You've been Galinda-fied. You don't have to do that, you know.")

Now, I understand disliking that he expresses such implicit disdain for his own girlfriend's dress style and mannerisms. Although maybe that's supposed to be the first important hint that he doesn't really love Glinda or belong with her.

But these fans are effectively saying "I hate Fiyero for telling Elphaba she doesn't have to pretend to be someone she isn't or perform femininity in a certain way."

One of the arguments I read was basically that it's good for Elphaba to try to be a little more fashionable, because it will help other people realize that she's naturally beautiful and always has been, just like Glinda herself realizes in "Popular."

Valid... but does that mean she should play the role of a flirty, flouncy girl in a way she's obviously not comfortable with?

The other complaint is that effectively, Fiyero is telling her "You're Not Like Other Girls."

Argh, the misuse of Not Like Other Girls again!

I know I'm sensitive to this because I'm on the autism spectrum and have felt pressured to mask, especially where gender expectations are concerned. And I've always been a strong defender of feminine women and girls against faux feminists who label them silly or weak. But nowadays, people are so hyper-alert against Not Like Other Girls and Pick Me that any time a female geek, tomboy, or career woman in a "masculine" field is portrayed positively, someone says it's bad and anti-feminist because it's putting down femininity.

When I was growing up, if a feisty, outspoken, nerdy female character tried – despite her obvious discomfort – to be a cute, hair-tossing fashionista, but her love interest revealed that he already liked her authentic self, that would have been seen as positive and feminist! But now, apparently, it's "bad" because it means "He likes her for being Not Like Other Girls."

I don't get it.

[chrissy-kaos]

Wanna come have lunch with me?